Perbedaan keyakinan di keluarga besar dan di antara sahabat kami bukan berarti kami tidak bisa makan bersama.

Differences in belief in our extended family and among our friends do not mean we cannot eat together.

Breakdown of Perbedaan keyakinan di keluarga besar dan di antara sahabat kami bukan berarti kami tidak bisa makan bersama.

• makan: to eat
• di: in
• tidak: not
• kami: we
• bukan: not
• dan: and
• bersama: together
• bisa: can
• kami: our
• keluarga besar: the extended family
• berarti: to mean
• perbedaan: the difference
• keyakinan: the belief
• di antara: among
• sahabat: the friend

Questions & Answers about Perbedaan keyakinan di keluarga besar dan di antara sahabat kami bukan berarti kami tidak bisa makan bersama.

What is the nuance of keluarga besar compared with just keluarga?

Keluarga means family in a general sense (often the nuclear family: parents and children).

Keluarga besar literally means big family, but in usage it means the extended family: grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, in-laws, etc.

So in this sentence, di keluarga besar is best understood as within our extended family, not just the people living in one house.

Why is the preposition di used in di keluarga besar? Could I use dalam keluarga besar instead?

Both di keluarga besar and dalam keluarga besar are possible:

• di keluarga besar
  Focuses on the family as a “place” or social space: in/within the extended family. Very natural in speech and writing.

• dalam keluarga besar
  Slightly more formal or “bookish,” and sounds more like within the extended family in a conceptual sense.

In everyday Indonesian, di keluarga besar is very normal and not considered wrong or informal.

What does perbedaan keyakinan literally mean, and how does that structure work?

Literally:

• perbedaan = difference(s) (from the root beda, “different”)
• keyakinan = belief(s), conviction(s), faith (from yakin, “to be sure/firmly believe”)

Perbedaan keyakinan is a noun + noun phrase that works like English “differences in beliefs / differences of belief.”

Indonesian often uses a modifier noun after another noun, instead of using a preposition like “of”:

• perbedaan bahasa = differences of language
• perbedaan budaya = differences in culture
• perbedaan keyakinan = differences in belief/faith

Is keyakinan specifically religious, or can it be any kind of belief?

Keyakinan can be broad (any strong conviction), but in real usage it very often implies religious or spiritual belief, especially when used in phrases like:

• perbedaan keyakinan
• kebebasan berkeyakinan

In this sentence, most readers will automatically understand keyakinan as religious beliefs/faiths unless context clearly points elsewhere.

You could also say perbedaan agama (“differences in religion”) for a more explicitly religious wording, but perbedaan keyakinan is a bit broader and slightly more neutral/polite.

Why is it di antara sahabat kami and not just antara sahabat kami?

Both are possible, but the nuance differs slightly:

• antara sahabat kami = between/among our friends
• di antara sahabat kami = literally in between/among our friends, similar to English “among our friends” with more of a “within that group” feeling.

The di emphasizes the idea of being inside that group. The phrase di antara is very common and idiomatic for “among” people:

• di antara teman-teman saya = among my friends
• di antara peserta = among the participants

So di antara sahabat kami sounds very natural and is probably more common than just antara sahabat kami in this type of sentence.

Is sahabat singular or plural here? Why isn’t there a plural suffix like -s?

Indonesian usually doesn’t mark plural with endings like -s. Singular vs plural is understood from context or from extra words.

• sahabat can mean a close friend or close friends (as a group), depending on context.
• sahabat kami here is naturally understood as our (close) friends.

If you really want to emphasize plurality, you can say:

• para sahabat kami (more formal: “our friends”)
• sahabat-sahabat kami (reduplication to stress “friends” in the plural)

But in everyday language, sahabat kami is enough to mean “our friends.”

What’s the difference between teman and sahabat here?

Both refer to people you’re friendly with, but:

• teman = friend, general; can be casual (classmate, coworker, etc.)
• sahabat = close friend / very good friend, usually with a stronger emotional bond

In di antara sahabat kami, the speaker suggests these are not just random acquaintances, but close friends or long-time companions.

How does bukan berarti work grammatically? Why not tidak berarti?

Basic rules:

• tidak negates verbs and adjectives.
• bukan negates nouns, pronouns, and often works like “is not.”

berarti is technically a verb/adjective meaning “to mean / meaningful.” So in theory you could say:

• tidak berarti = does not mean / is not meaningful

However, bukan berarti is a very common fixed expression in Indonesian, used after some situation or fact to say “does not mean (that) …”. It’s as if the fuller sentence were:

• Perbedaan keyakinan itu bukan berarti (bahwa) …
  “Those differences in belief are not (something that) means (that) …”

Because many speakers feel an implied itu or hal itu (“that (fact)”) before bukan berarti, they naturally choose bukan here.

So:

• Perbedaan keyakinan … bukan berarti kami tidak bisa makan bersama.
  = Those differences in belief don’t mean that we can’t eat together.

You can find tidak berarti in other contexts (e.g. itu tidak berarti apa-apa = “that doesn’t mean anything”), but bukan berarti is the idiomatic pattern in this “X doesn’t mean (that) Y” structure.

What is the role of kami here, and why is kami used instead of kita?

Indonesian distinguishes two kinds of “we”:

• kami = we (not including the listener)
• kita = we (including the listener)

In this sentence, kami is used twice:

• sahabat kami = our friends (friends of us, not necessarily including you the listener)
• bukan berarti kami tidak bisa makan bersama = does not mean that we (the speaker’s group) cannot eat together

Using kami signals that the speaker is talking about their group, not automatically including the person they’re talking to. If the speaker wanted to include the listener in that “we,” they would use kita.

Why is kami repeated? Could the second kami be omitted?

The sentence has:

• … di antara sahabat kami
• … bukan berarti kami tidak bisa makan bersama.

The second kami is obligatory because:

• Indonesian normally needs an explicit subject before a verb unless it’s clearly understood or purposely dropped in very informal speech.
• Here, the new clause kami tidak bisa makan bersama starts after berarti, so a clear subject (kami) is expected.

You could drop the first kami in some contexts if the owner is obvious, but dropping the second kami would make the clause less clear and sound incomplete in standard Indonesian:

• ✗ bukan berarti tidak bisa makan bersama
  Grammatically possible in very informal speech, but it sounds less precise/complete.
• ✓ bukan berarti kami tidak bisa makan bersama
  Clear and standard.

Why is it tidak bisa makan bersama and not tidak dapat makan bersama?

Both are correct; the difference is mainly register and nuance:

• tidak bisa makan bersama
  
  • bisa = can/be able to
  • More colloquial and very common in speech.
• tidak dapat makan bersama
  
  • dapat = can/be able to / may / to obtain
  • Slightly more formal/written or careful speech.

In many situations, you can swap bisa and dapat with no change in meaning. Here, tidak bisa makan bersama sounds perfectly natural and conversational.

Does makan bersama need an object? It just says “eat together” without saying what we eat.

In Indonesian, makan can stand alone without mentioning the food:

• mau makan? = want to eat / have a meal?
• kita makan dulu = let’s eat first

So makan bersama is naturally understood as having a meal together, even with no object.

If you want to be more specific, you can add an object:

• makan malam bersama = have dinner together
• makan siang bersama = have lunch together

How does bersama compare to bareng or sama-sama?

All three can express together, but with different levels of formality:

• bersama

  • Neutral, standard, can be used in both formal and informal contexts.
  • makan bersama is appropriate almost anywhere.

• bareng (colloquial)

  • Very informal; common in casual speech.
  • makan bareng = eat together / grab food together (casual).

• sama-sama

  • Literally “same-same,” can mean “together” but also “you’re welcome.”
  • makan sama-sama = eat together (informal, friendly).

In this sentence, makan bersama is a good, natural, neutral choice.

What is the overall grammatical structure of the sentence? It feels long.

You can divide it into subject and predicate:

1. Subject:
   Perbedaan keyakinan di keluarga besar dan di antara sahabat kami
   = The differences in beliefs in our extended family and among our friends

2. Predicate:
   bukan berarti kami tidak bisa makan bersama.
   = does not mean that we cannot eat together.

So structurally, it’s:

[Noun phrase] + bukan berarti + [clause]

This X bukan berarti Y pattern is very common in Indonesian to say “X does not mean (that) Y.”